bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
1 High rates of apoptosis visualized in the symbiont-bearing gills
2 of deep-sea Bathymodiolus mussels
3Piquet Bérénice1,2, Shillito Bruce2, Lallier François H.1, Duperron Sébastien2,3,4, Andersen Ann C.1
4
51: Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR7144, Lab. Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, AD2M, Team : Adaptation et
6Biologie des Invertébrés marins en Conditions Extrêmes, ABICE, Station Biologique de Roscoff, SBR, 29680 Roscoff,
7France.
82: Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, IRD, UCN, UA, UMR7208, Lab. Biologie des Organismes et Ecosystèmes
9Aquatiques BOREA, Team : Adaptation aux Milieux Extrêmes, AMEX, 7 Quai Saint-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France.
103: Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, UMR7245, Lab. Mécanismes de Communication et Adaptation des
11Micro-organismes, Team : Cyanobactéries, Cyanotoxines et Environnement, CCE, 12 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France.
124: Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
13
14Corresponding authors: [email protected] and [email protected]
1 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
15Abstract
16Symbiosis between Bathymodiolus and Gammaproteobacteria enables these deep-sea mussels to live in toxic
17environments like hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. The quantity of endosymbionts within the gill-
18bacteriocytes appears to vary according to the hosts environment. We investigated the hypothesis of a control
19of the endosymbionts density by apoptosis, a programmed cell death. We used fluorometric TUNEL-method
20and active Caspase-3-targeting antibodies to visualize and quantify apoptotic cells in mussel gills. To avoid
21artefacts due to depressurization upon specimen recovery from the deep-sea, we compared the apoptotic rates
22between mussels recovered unpressurised, versus mussels recovered in a pressure-maintaining device, in two
23species from hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Bathymodiolus azoricus and B. puteoserpentis.
24Our results show that pressurized recovery had no significant effect on the apoptotic rate in the gill filaments.
25Apoptotic levels were highest in the ciliated zone and in the circulating hemocytes, compared to the
26bacteriocyte zone. Apoptotic gill-cells in B. aff. boomerang from the pockmarks off the Gulf of Guinea,
27show similar distribution patterns. Deep-sea symbiotic mussels have much higher rates of apoptosis in their
28gills than the coastal mussel Mytilus edulis without chemolithoautotrophic symbionts. We discuss how
29apoptosis might be one of the mechanisms that contribute to the adaptation of deep-sea mussels to toxic
30environments and/or to symbiosis.
31
32Key words: symbiosis, isobaric recovery, hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, Mytilus edulis, bacteriocytes.
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33Introduction
34 Symbiosis is of major significance to life on Earth. Because symbiosis is a mixture of cooperation and
35conflict between two (or several) partners, each of them must initiate and carry on a continued dialogue, and
36control their partners’ interaction. Many symbioses involve partners from different domains of life, such as a
37eukaryote host and a bacterial symbiont. This questions how a reciprocal control can occur between so
38distantly related organisms, and whether some of the mechanisms involved might be universal. One of the
39mechanisms by which an animal host can control populations of its symbionts is apoptosis. Apoptosis is a
40programmed cell death involving three main steps: (1) nuclear condensation and fragmentation, (2) cell-wall
41budding into apoptotic bodies, and (3) their release and possible phagocytosis by neighboring cells [1,2].
42Apoptosis plays multiple roles in normal cell turnover, during development, and in the immune system [3].
43Its role in symbiosis is also documented: in the cereal weevil Sitophilus for example, apoptosis participates to
44regulate the densities of the endosymbiotic bacterium Sodalis pierantonius. The symbiont provides essential
45amino acids that allow the host to rapidly build its protective exoskeleton. Endosymbionts multiply in young
46adults, but when the cuticle is built, the symbionts are rapidly eliminated through apoptosis of the host cells
47that contain them [4]. In corals, bleaching occurs in response to heat stress, when the host releases
48dinoflagellate symbionts through apoptosis and autophagy linked in a see-saw manner, such that when
49apoptosis is inhibited autophagy is initiated as a back-up mechanism, and vice-versa [5]. In addition
50apoptosis might act as a post-phagocytic winnowing mechanism in the symbiotic system [6].
51 At deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, the animals that dominate in terms of biomass live in
52association with chemosynthetic bacteria, which sustain most of their nutrition [7–10], but the role apoptosis
53could play in regulating symbiosis has barely been explored. In the vestimentiferan tubeworms Riftia
54pachyptila, living at vents, and Lamellibrachia luymesi from cold seeps, the sulfur-oxidizing symbionts are
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55located within cells of the trophosome. These cells differentiate and proliferate from the trophosome lobule
56center, then migrate towards the periphery of the lobule where they undergo apoptosis [11]. Ultrastructural
57observations at the periphery of the trophosome lobules show that the symbionts are digested in vacuoles
58leading to extensive myelin bodies, then remnants of symbionts disappear, while apoptotic nuclei with
59clumped chromatin patches occur [11]. Thus, in Riftia as in the weevil, apoptosis appears to be involved in
60the process of symbiont regulation to recover the metabolic investment from the symbiotic phase.
61 Deep-sea mussels house very dense populations of endosymbionts inside specialized gill epithelial
62cells, the bacteriocytes, [12,13]. In fact, Bathymodiolus constitute by far the densest microbial habitats,
63although they usually host a very limited diversity of symbiont lineages [7,8]. The relevance to the topic of
64symbiont control lies in the fact that the association is particularly flexible, with abundances of their
65symbionts (Sulfur- and/or methane-oxidizers) that can vary within hours depending on the availability of
66symbiont substrates in the surrounding water [8,14–18]. The symbionts also rapidly disappear if their
67substrates are absent [17–19]. Ultrastructural studies of the gill cells have indicated intracellular digestion of
68the symbionts within lysosomes as an important carbon transfer mechanism [20–22] suggesting that the host
69can access the energy stored in its symbionts by killing and digesting them (i.e. a process compared to
70“farming”). Enzymatic studies involving the detection of acid phosphatases have shown that some energy
71from the symbionts can also be transferred to the host through molecules leaking from live symbionts (i.e. a
72process compared to “milking”) [23].Recent results from whole-gill tissue transcriptomic analyses in the
73vent species Bathymodiolus thermophilus indicated that high symbiont loads are correlated with under-
74expression of the genes inhibiting apoptosis, suggesting that when the symbionts are abundant, apoptosis
75might be activated [24,25]. It can thus be hypothesized that apoptosis is a mechanism by which the hosts
76control the number of symbionts inside their gills, and possibly obtain their carbon. High throughput
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77sequencing and transcriptomic analyses have shown the great importance of the apoptotic signaling pathways
78in the gill tissue of several species of Bathymodiolus [26–28].
79 Apoptosis in mollusks is generally triggered by the interaction between immune cells and parasites
80or pathogens [29]. The high degree of evolutionary conservation of biochemical signaling and executing
81pathways of apoptosis indicate that programmed cell death likely plays a crucial role in homeostasis and
82functioning of molluscan immune system [29–31]. Apoptosis is particularly complex in mollusks, and
83caspases are key molecules that are activated in two major apoptotic pathways: the extrinsic or death
84receptor pathway, and the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway [31]. The executioner caspase-3 activates a
85heterodimer protein, the DNA fragmentation factor that is responsible for the completion of DNA
86fragmentation [31]. However alternative caspase-independent pathways have also been evidenced in
87mollusks, and cross-talk between different pathways might also be involved [30,31]. Apoptosis was shown to
88be induced in Bathymodiolus azoricus in response to Vibrio diabolicus exposure [32]. However the immune
89gene responses in B. azoricus appeared tied to the presence of endosymbiont bacteria, as the progressive
90weakening of its host transcriptional activity correlates with the gradual disappearance of endosymbiont
91bacteria from the gill tissues during the extended acclimatization in the sulfide and methane-free aquaria
92[32]. Thus, the presence of symbionts might modulate the apoptotic patterns in deep-sea symbiotic mussels
93compared to their coastal mussel relatives without chemolithoautotrophic symbiont.
94 While several studies have highlighted an important activity of apoptotic signaling factors in three
95species of Bathymodiolus (B. azoricus, B. manusensis from hydrothermal vents, and B. platifrons from cold
96seeps (Bettencourt et al., 2010; Wong et al., 2015; Zheng et al., 2017)), transcriptomic studies do not give a
97visual account of this apoptotic activity within the tissues. The present study is the first microscopic
98investigation of the general distribution patterns of apoptotic cells in the gills, and the first attempt to
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99quantify apoptosis in the different gill cell types of Bathymodiolus. We chose to focus on three species,
100namely Bathymodiolus azoricus, B. puteoserpentis and B. aff. boomerang. The first two often dominate the
101macrofauna at Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) hydrothermal vent sites [33,34]. The third occurs at cold seeps
102located on the continental margin in the Gulf of Guinea [35]. The former two species are phylogenetically
103sister species and are also closely related to B. boomerang [12]. All three species harbor methane- and sulfur-
104oxidizing bacteria that co-exist within host cells. Their gills comprise several cell types: epidermal ciliated
105cells and mucous goblet cells, bacteriocytes hosting the symbionts, interspaced by intercalary cells, and
106finally circulating hemocytes [36]. Our aim was to investigate, whether apoptosis might contribute to
107regulating symbiont densities. We thus tested, whether apoptosis preferentially occurs in bacteriocytes, in
108particular the most densely populated ones.
109 As the recovery of deep-sea specimens from several thousand meters depth usually involves a
110depressurization stress that might alter gene expression and disturb the cell machinery, leading to artefacts
111[37,38] we performed a comparative analysis of apoptosis in specimens recovered with and without
112depressurization upon collection. Specimens of B. azoricus and B. puteoserpentis were recovered using an
113hyperbaric chamber (PERISCOP - Projet d’Enceinte de Remontée Isobare Servant la Capture d’Organismes
114Profonds) that allows maintaining their native pressure and temperature throughout recovery, avoiding
115recovery bias [39]. Control specimens recovered without PERISCOP were included. The cold seep B. aff.
116boomerang was analyzed to identify potential seep versus vent habitat-related differences, and Mytilus edulis
117was used as a non-chemolithoautotrophic-symbiont-bearing control mussel. Apoptosis was visualized in gill
118tissue sections by the TUNEL method (Transferase dUTP Nick-End Labeling) [11,40,41], a common and
119standard way of visualizing the fragmented DNA in the nucleus of cells undergoing apoptosis. To further
120support that observed patterns actually correspond to apoptosis, we performed immunolocalization of active
6 6 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
121Caspase-3, a form of this enzyme that is the overall convergent node of molecular cascades leading to
122irreversible apoptosis in mollusks [31]. Altogether, this study provides to our knowledge the first visual
123overview of apoptosis in relation to symbiosis in chemosynthetic mussels.
124
125Materials and Methods
126Specimen collection
127 This analysis was conducted on 40 individuals of Bathymodiolus (Bivalvia, Mytilidae) consisting in
12821 Bathymodiolus azoricus and ten B. puteoserpentis from hydrothermal vents, and nine B. aff. boomerang
129from cold seeps. Specimens of B. azoricus were collected during the BioBaz 2013 cruise on the Mid-Atlantic
130Ridge [42]: ten specimens were sampled from the vent fields of Menez Gwen (MG2 marker: 37°50.669N;
13131°31.156W, 830m depth) and eleven specimens from Rainbow site (France 5 marker: 37°17.349N;
13232°16.536W, at 2270 m depth). B. puteoserpentis were sampled during the BICOSE 2014 cruise [43]. All
133ten specimens were sampled on the vent site Snake Pit, close to the “Elan” marker (23°22′54′′N, 44°55′48′
134′W, at 3520 m depth). For these two species, half of the specimens were recovered in a standard (i.e.
135unpressurized) way, and the other half using the PERISCOP hyperbaric vessel. The standard collection was
136done in a waterproof sealed box (BIOBOX) containing local deep-sea water, in which the mussels were
137exposed to a depressurization corresponding to the depth of their habitat during recovery (approx. 0.1 MPa
138every 10 m). The pressurized recovery was performed using a small device named the "Croco" sampling cell
139[44], which was transferred into the PERISCOP pressure-maintaining device [39]. PERISCOP was released
140from the seafloor through a shuttle system, and surfaced within 45 to 100 minutes. Pressure was monitored
7 7 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
141during ascent with an autonomous pressure sensor (SP2T4000, NKE Instruments, France). To compare
142apoptosis between vent and seep mussels, nine specimens of Bathymodiolus aff. boomerang were collected
143in a standard manner from the Régab pockmark site in the Gulf of Guinea (M1 marker 5°47.89S, 9°42.62E,
1443150 m depth and M2 marker 5°47.85S, 9°42.67E, 3150 m depth) during the 2011 cruise WACS [45]. All
145three cruises were aboard the RV Pourquoi Pas? using the ROV Victor 6000. In addition to deep-sea
146mussels, nine coastal mussels (Mytilus edulis) in two sets were analyzed. First set were wild M. edulis
147collected on rocks from the intertidal seashore in front of Roscoff Marine Station in January 2014 (n=4
148individuals analyzed). The second set of M. edulis were cultivated mussels bought from the fishmongers in
149Paris in January 2017 (n= 5 individuals analyzed). All data concerning the specimens are shown in the
150Supplementary Table 1.
151 Sample fixation, inclusion and FISH experiments
152 Mussel gills were dissected at 4°C, within 10 minutes after recovery (releasing pressure of the
153PERISCOP in the case of isobaric recoveries). Maximum shell length, height under the umbo, and width of
154the closed shell were measured with a caliper (see supplementary figure 1). Anterior and posterior gill
155fragments were fixed in 4% formaldehyde in sterile-filtered seawater (SFS) for 2 hours. Gills were then
156rinsed in SFS, and dehydrated in increasing series of ethanol (50, 70 and 80%, 15 min each). In the
157laboratory, gills were embedded in polyethylene glycol (PEG) distearate: 1-hexadecanol (9:1), cut into 8 µm-
158thick sections using a microtome (Thermo, Germany), recovered on SuperFrost Plus slides (VWR
159International, USA), and stored at -20°C. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments were
160performed to confirm the localization of symbionts following the protocol and using probes described
161previously [15]. The gill lamellae were sectioned ventrally, so that each filament appeared in cross-section
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162with its frontal end facing externally towards mantle and shell, and its abfrontal end facing the inner gill
163lamellae towards the foot. (See supplementary figure 2).
164TUNEL (Transferase dUTP Nick-End Labeling)
165 For the detection and quantification of apoptosis, we used the TUNEL method with the in-situ cell
166death detection kit following manufacturer’s instructions (ROCHE, Germany). All slides were first dewaxed
167then rehydrated by immersion in decreasing series of ethanol. Tissues were rinsed with PBS 1 X and
168permeabilized by proteinase K (20µg.ml-1) to enable the binding of dUTP. Various incubation times were
169tested, and 8 min gave the best result. Slides were incubated at 37°C for 1h30 with fluorophore dUTP and
170enzyme rTdT. Slides were rinsed in 3 PBS bathes (10 min each) to remove the unfixed fluorescein-12-dUTP.
171In a last step, DNA of all nuclei was labelled with 4’6’-Diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) that is
172incorporated in the SlowFade® Gold Antifade Mounting reagent (Invitrogen, USA). For each analyzed
173individual, positive and negative controls were performed on adjacent serial sections. The positive control
174involved a pre-incubation with DNase I (3U/ml, 10 min) before running the full protocol. It provokes
175artificial fragmentation of DNA and exposes 3’OH ends, which bind the green fluorochrome and leads to all
176nuclei being labelled. The negative control follows the same protocol, but omitting the rTdT enzyme. It
177enables to reveal autofluorescence of the tissues and unspecific fixation of the fluorophore.
178Immunolocalization of active Caspase-3
179 Slides were dewaxed and rehydrated as for the TUNEL experiments. They were then covered in
180blocking solution (PBS 10X, 2% BSA, 0.3% triton) for 2 h at 4°C. Tissue sections were incubated with the
181rabbit polyclonal active anti-Caspase-3 primary antibody (directed against a peptide from the P17 fragment
182of the activated human/mouse Caspase-3) (R&D system, USA). This primary incubation lasted 2 hours at
9 9 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
1834°C. Slides were rinsed in PBS 10X three times and covered with the secondary antibody: Alexa Fluor 488-
184labelled goat anti-rabbit (Invitrogen, dilution 1:500) for 1 h at room temperature. After 3 baths in PBS 10X,
185slides were mounted with SlowFade®. Negative controls were obtained by omitting the primary antibody.
186Image acquisition and analysis
187 Slides were observed under a BX61 epifluorescence microscope (Olympus, Japan), and pictures
188were taken under an SP5 confocal (Leica, Germany) at the x40 magnification. This magnification enabled a
189clear resolution to count each individual labeled nucleus. Entire cross-sections of the TUNEL-labelled gill
190filaments were covered in full in about 3 to 4 pictures (figures 1 and 2). The exposure time (or gain on the
191confocal) was standardized and identical for all pictures. The 3D-acquisitions were obtained by acquiring
192images every 0.5 µm throughout the thickness of the section. Slides were observed at 505 nm and 555 nm
193wavelengths (TUNEL and Caspase 3 signals, respectively), and 400 nm (DAPI). Classical immuno-
194localization are shown with all labeling in their original color (DAPI in blue), but for TUNEL labelled nuclei
195we had to change the DAPI color into red. Indeed blue DNA-labelling overlaid by green (i.e. apoptosis
196TUNEL labeling) leads to a complex mixture of various levels of green and blue, often making quantitative
197interpretations difficult. To enable an easy quantitative analysis of the TUNEL images, we chose to visualize
198DAPI in red, so that a double labelling would lead to a third distinct color (yellowish). Thus, a TUNEL-
199labelled nucleus appears bright green when its amount of fragmented DNA is great (i.e. when a nucleus is in
200an advanced state of apoptosis), but yellow or orange, when its amount of fragmented DNA is respectively
201low or very low (i.e. when a nucleus is in an early state of apoptosis). At first, we counted green and
202yellowish nuclei separately, but as they both expressed apoptosis, and early and advanced states were
203randomly distributed in the gill lamellae (figures 1 and 2), we finally pooled them together.
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204Figure 1: FISH and TUNEL labelling on gill filaments of B. azoricus. A: Transverse section of gill filaments with FISH labelling. 205Nuclei from host tissue in blue (DAPI); sulfur-oxidizing symbionts in pink, and methane-oxidizers in green. B, C and D TUNEL- 206labelled nuclei in green, DAPI staining in red. Arrows point to apoptotic nuclei. B: Ciliated zones often contain many labelled nuclei. 207C: Bacteriocyte zone that displays many apoptotic nuclei (arrows), apoptotic hemocytes (arrowheads) and an apoptotic cell detached 208from the basal lamina (circle). D: Abfrontal zone of the gill filament showing apoptotic nuclei in cells with no symbiont (arrows), 209and apoptotic cells detached from the basal lamina (circles). Abbreviations: BZ: Bacteriocyte zone; FCZ: Frontal Ciliated Zone; H: 210Hemolymph zone; IFCJ Inter-Filamentary Ciliated Junction. Scale bars: 50µm. 211
212Figure 2: TUNEL labelling on gill filaments of B. puteoserpentis. TUNEL-labelled nuclei in green, DAPI staining in red. A: 213Frontal ciliated zones often contain many labelled nuclei. B: Bacteriocyte zone that displays only a few apoptotic nuclei. C: Inter 214Filamentary ciliated Junction often contain many labelled nuclei. D: Abfrontal zone of the gill filament with apoptotic nuclei. 215Abbreviations: BZ: Bacteriocyte zone; FCZ: Frontal Ciliated Zone; H: Hemolymph zone; IFCJ Inter-Filamentary Ciliated Junction. 216Scale bars: 50µm. 217
218 Images were analyzed by counting the labelled nuclei using the free Image J software [46]. However
219care was taken to count separately each respective cell-type: hemocytes, ciliated cells and finally
220bacteriocytes and intercalary cells (the two latter being close neighboring cell types, hard to distinguish
221under the fluorescence microscope, they were counted together) (figure 1 and 2). Thus for each image,
222percentages of TUNEL-labelled nuclei were obtained from the hemolymph zone (HZ), the ciliated zone
223(CZ), and the bacteriocyte zone (BZ) by calculating the ratio between the number of TUNEL-labelled nuclei
224and the number of DAPI-labeled nuclei present in each respective zone. A fourth value, the total percentage
225for the whole picture, was obtained by summing all labeled nuclei (whatever their cell-type) on the total
226number of DAPI-stained nuclei in a given picture.
227Comparisons between species, zones and treatments
228 The percentage of TUNEL nuclei labelled was used for all analyses after an Arcsine transformation
229[47]. The normality of datasets was tested (Shapiro-Wilk test), which revealed a non-normal distribution of
230the data. Non-parametric tests were thus applied for inter-groups comparisons (Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon
231and Kruskal–Wallis) with the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. All statistical analyses and
232graph plots were performed using R (R Development Core Team, version 3.3.3).
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233
234Results
235 All analyses were performed on transverse sections of the gill lamellae (supplementary figure 2).
236From the FISH results, it is noteworthy that bacteriocytes close to the frontal ciliated zone contained large
237quantities of endosymbionts, and that both the height of the bacteriocytes and their symbiont density
238decreased towards the abfrontal zone in B. puteoserpentis, and B. azoricus (figure 1A). This frontal/abfrontal
239decrease in symbiont density also appears with the DAPI staining, as this labels not only the host nuclei, but
240also the DNA of the bacterial symbionts.
241Visualization of apoptosis in Bathymodiolus
242 The distribution of TUNEL positive cells in B. azoricus and B. puteoserpentis are shown in Fig. 1
243and 2, respectively. In negative controls (supplementary figure 3B), no fluorescence at all was observed
244compared to positive controls (supplementary figure 3A), except a bright auto-fluorescence signal seen in
245clustered round granules. These granules are thought to correspond to mucus droplets present in goblet-cells
246interspersed among the ciliated cells and along the epithelium of the gill filaments. This autofluorescence
247signal was easy to distinguish from TUNEL signal, as the latter was typically much smaller and brighter.
248Nuclei labelled in the TUNEL experiments were more or less bright. As TUNEL labels the free 3’OH
249fragments, we assume that the strongly labelled nuclei showed a higher amount of DNA fragments compared
250to the weakly stained ones. Since apoptosis is a progressive process occurring within a few hours, we
251hypothesize that the former were in a more advanced apoptotic state. Both weak (orange or even yellow) and
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252strong-labelled nuclei (green) were thus counted together to estimate the percentage of apoptotic nuclei in the
253various cell-types of the gill lamellae (ciliated zone, bacteriocyte zone and hemolymph) (figure 1and 2).
254Figure 3: Active Caspase-3 labelling in the gill of B. azoricus. Typical labelling in green surrounds the nucleus (arrows). DAPI 255signal in blue. Scale bar: 50µm. 256 257 The ciliated frontal zone often is the brightest labelled zone with many strongly labelled cells: up to
258one cell out of two in some filaments (Fig. 1B, 2A) giving a clustered appearance of the apoptotic cells in the
259frontal ciliated zone. However the closest neighbor filament may sometimes only have a few or no labelled
260cells at all, indicating a great spatial variability in the tissue taken all together. Hemocytes were present on all
261images, but in varying numbers. Many hemocytes are visible on figure 1C for example, compared to figure
2621B, but more of them were labelled in the latter. TUNEL-labelling in the bacteriocyte zone was
263heterogeneous: very few nuclei were labelled close to the frontal ciliated zone (figure 1B and figure 2A), and
264then increasingly more were labelled when reaching the abfrontal zone (figure 1D and figure 2D). In the
265abfrontal zone, the bacteriocytes were most of the time devoid of bacteria. Sometimes, a bacteriocyte seemed
266to be lacking in the abfrontal zone, leaving a “hole” in the epithelial tissue (figure 1C-D and figure 2 B-D).
267 Active Caspase 3 immunohistochemistry assays yielded strong signals within the cytoplasm of cells,
268and particularly concentrated around the nuclei (figure 3). On serial sections within the same individual, the
269distribution patterns of active Caspase-3 were similar to the TUNEL signal observed, confirming that
270TUNEL actually revealed apoptotic cells. In general, the active Caspase-3 antibody seemed to label more
271nuclei than TUNEL.
272Patterns of apoptosis in Bathymodiolus azoricus and B. puteoserpentis
273 In total, 31 individuals from the two species were analyzed, representing a total of 19,612 DAPI-
274labelled nuclei counted on 206 images. The specimens came from deep-sea sites located at different depths,
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275namely Menez Gwen (-830 m), Rainbow (-2270 m) and Snake Pit (-3520 m). Sampled specimens were
276either recovered unpressurised (non-isobaric) or with a pressurized (isobaric) recovery. In the latter,
277PERISCOP reached the surface while retaining 83.6, 76.5 and 70.4% of the native deep-sea pressure at the
278Menez Gwen, Rainbow and Snake Pit sites, respectively.
279 First of all, comparing the global counts in gills of all individuals from all three sites, we noted that
280there is a great variation in the percentage of apoptotic nuclei among individuals (see supplementary figure 4
281A-C). This strong heterogeneity indicates that results of statistical analyses must be treated with caution. In
282the ciliated (CZ) and bacteriocyte zones (BZ), the percentage of TUNEL-labelled nuclei was not
283significantly different among the three MAR sites and the two recovery types (CZ: Kruskal-Wallis test chi-
284squared =6.07, df=5, p-value=0.30; BZ: Kruskal-Wallis test chi-squared=3.69, df=5, p-value=0.60) (See
285figure 4 for BZ and supplementary figure 5 A for CZ). Similarly, the hemolymph zone showed no significant
286difference among sites and recovery types (HZ: Kruskal-Wallis test chi-squared=10.74, df=5, p-
287value=0.05678) (supplementary figure 5 B). These quantitative results confirm the visual patterns and
288intensities of TUNEL-labelling in gill filaments of mussels that did not reveal any self-evident difference
289between specimens from the three sites in either recovery type. For all specimens put together,
290quantifications indicated median values of 41.3% (±27%) and 34.5% (±31%) labelled nuclei in the ciliated
291and hemolymph zones, respectively. In comparison, the bacteriocyte zone displayed only 19.3% (±24%) of
292nuclei that were labelled, (figure 5) which is significantly less than in the other two (Kruskal-Wallis test chi-
293squared=27.639, df=2, p-value<0.001, post-hoc test with Bonferroni correction between HZ and BZ, p-
294value=0.0002; between CZ and BZ, p-value <0.0001).
295Figure 4: Percentages of apoptotic nuclei in the bacteriocyte zone of B. azoricus (Ba) and B. puteoserpentis (Bp) from the 296three sites. White boxplots indicate specimens from non-isobaric, and grey from isobaric recoveries, respectively. Percentages were 297not significantly different (a) in pairwise Wilcoxon test with Bonferroni’s standard correction. The letter n indicates the number of 298individuals analyzed for each species. Boxplot whiskers correspond to minimal and maximal values on a single image, the line inside 299the box is the median, and the upper and lower frames of the boxes represent the first and third quartile respectively. 300
14 14 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
301Figure 5: Percentages of apoptotic nuclei in the hemolymph, ciliated and bacteriocyte zones of B. azoricus and B. 302puteoserpentis. Different letters (a,b) indicate the plots that are statistically different (Wilcoxon test) and n indicates the number of 303specimens. Boxplot whiskers indicate minimal and maximal values on a single image, the line inside the box is the median, and the 304upper and lower frames of the boxes represent the first and third quartile respectively. 305
306Patterns of apoptosis in the seep species Bathymodiolus aff. boomerang
307 TUNEL labelling was applied to the gill filaments of Bathymodiolus aff. boomerang 9 specimens, 40
308pictures representing 3,424 nuclei) (figure 6 A). Percentages were significantly different between zones
309(Kruskal-wallis test: chi-squared=25.00, df=2, p-value<0.0001). As in the two studied vent species, apoptosis
310was more frequent in the ciliated zone (median: 36%, ±23%) and then in the hemocytes zone (median: 21%
311±9%), compared to the bacteriocyte zone (median: 9% ±23%). Overall these results suggest similar patterns
312in Mytilidae from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps (figure 7). Visually, the density of bacteria inside
313bacteriocytes seems to be more constant between bacteriocytes located in the frontal and in the abfrontal
314distal edge in B. aff. boomerang compared to the two vent mussels.
315Figure 6: TUNEL labelling on gill filaments of Bathymodiolus aff. boomerang (A) and Mytilus edulis (B-C). TUNEL-labelling 316in green or yellow, DAPI staining in red. A: Bathymodiolus aff. boomerang displays many labelled nuclei mostly in the frontal 317ciliated zone. B-C: Mytilus edulis gills show very few TUNEL-labelled nuclei, two are visible in the insert (C). Same abbreviations 318as in figure 1. Scale bar: 50µm. 319
320Figure 7: Percentages of apoptotic nuclei compared between vent and seep species in the ciliated, hemolymph and 321bacteriocyte zones of B. azoricus, B. puteoserpentis and B. aff. boomerang (Ba, Bp and Bb, respectively). The letter n indicates 322the number of specimens. Boxplot whiskers indicate minimal and maximal values on a single image, line inside the box is the 323median, the line inside the box is the median, and the upper and lower frames of the boxes represent the first and third quartile 324respectively. 325
326Patterns of apoptosis in the gill of coastal Mytilus edulis
327 Gill tissues of Mytilus edulis were labelled by the TUNEL method (9 specimens from two different
328localizations, 28 images, 4,091 nuclei). Both the wild mussels, collected on the intertidal rocks near the
329marine station in January and the commercial mussels bought in Paris in January, gave the same distribution
15 15 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
330pattern of apoptotic cells. The number of labelled nuclei was very low in comparison to vent and seep
331mussels (figure 6B) (median: 1.6%, ±1.6%) and nearly the same percentage between pictures. In M. edulis,
332the majority of labelled nuclei were hemocytes (median: 6.9%, ±10.9%) compared to the epidermal cells
333(median: 0.9%, ±1.4%).
334
335Discussion
336Relevance of TUNEL labelling to the study of apoptosis in deep-sea mussels
337 During apoptosis DNA undergoes fragmentation, and the TUNEL assay labels the free 3’OH ends
338that are generated. However, other mechanisms can lead to DNA fragmentation that would result in a
339positive TUNEL labelling, and for this reason the TUNEL methodology has been criticized [48–50]. It is
340nevertheless a standard procedure that has already been applied in mollusk tissues, and in association with
341active caspase-3 immunolocalization to detect apoptosis in the chemosymbiotic bivalve Codakia orbiculata
342[40,51]. Caspase-3 exists within the cytosol as inactive dimers. All apoptotic pathways in mollusks converge
343towards a step of cleavage of this zymogen that ultimately results in the triggering of apoptosis [31,52].
344Although it may have other roles, the activation of Caspase-3 usually leads to cell death by apoptosis.
345Because other caspases activate necrosis and necroptosis pathways, the occurrence of active Caspase-3
346signals rather supports that most observed TUNEL signals actually correspond to apoptotic nuclei [53]. It
347should however be kept in mind that another apoptotic pathway exists that is Caspase-independent, as it can
348take place without activating Caspase-3 [54,55].
349Deep-sea mussels display high rates of apoptosis in their gills
16 16 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
350 Recovery stress has long been cited as a factor that may prevent accurate assessment of the
351physiology of deep-sea organisms [39,56,57]. In this study, we found no statistical difference between
352percentages of apoptotic cells between gills from specimens of Bathymodiolus azoricus and B.
353puteoserpentis recovered classically (non-isobaric) and those recovered using the isobaric sampling cell
354PERISCOP. Thus depressurization during recovery does not seem to trigger massive apoptosis in the gills,
355despite that depressurization, by disrupting cells, may alter the distribution of different actors of apoptosis
356that pass through different cell compartments (mitochondria, nucleus, cell membrane) [39]. No differences
357were observed between hydrothermal vent sites, whatever their depth, further suggesting that apoptosis is a
358natural phenomenon in the gills of deep-sea mussels. Estimates of rates of apoptosis based on TUNEL
359labelling were much higher in the gills of deep-sea mussels including the seep species B. aff. boomerang,
360compared to their coastal relative Mytilus edulis lacking chemolithotrophic symbionts. This comparison has
361been made with two different sets of Mytilus: wild and cultivated, yielding the same scarce TUNEL-
362distribution pattern. At this stage it is not possible to ascertain, whether the much higher levels measured in
363Bathymodiolus are linked with their deep-sea chemosynthetic habitats (for example due to the abundance of
364xenobiotic compounds and oxidative stressors), with the occurrence of symbionts, or with their different
365evolutionary history.
366Patterns and potential roles of apoptosis in deep-sea mussels
367 A major finding in this study is that rates of apoptosis vary considerably among Bathymodiolus
368individual specimens, contrary to Mytilus, for a similar investigation effort. This could reveal distinct
369physiological status among the Bathymodiolus at the time of the analysis. Nonetheless, it should be
370underlined that apoptosis is known to be a rapidly occurring mechanism, in a time range of only a few hours
371[1]. The distribution of apoptotic cells in a tissue often shows a clustered pattern, as for instance in the
17 17 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
372mammalian intestine, where apoptotic signal appears typically confined to a cluster of neighboring villi,
373while other areas of the mucosa appear unstained [41]. A sporadic distribution might ensure a local recycling
374of the organ, without harming its global function, and might indeed be a characteristic of the apoptotic
375phenomenon. In the case of Bathymodiolus, gills often showed a few TUNEL-positive cells in some cross-
376sections, and even clusters in the frontal ciliated area of some filaments, but none in the frontal zone of
377neighboring filaments. This clustered pattern may also contribute to the observed heterogeneity among our
378individuals. Anyway, the great inter-individual variation prevents from drawing any definitive conclusion,
379even based on statistical tests of which the results have to be treated with caution. Nevertheless, a clear trend
380is that the rates measured in the bacteriocyte zone are lower than in the ciliated and hemocyte zones. The
381very high rates of apoptosis in the ciliated gill cells, in particular compared to M. edulis, are intriguing
382because these cells do not contain chemolithotrophic symbionts. The gills of Bathymodiolus are clearly
383different from those of the coastal mussels for which, at any given size, the gill surface area is around 20
384times smaller [8]. Bathymodiolus gills are particularly thick and over-developed, which might lead to a
385higher metabolic demand in order to properly circulate water and vital compounds. Ciliated cells also display
386very abundant mitochondria [8,13,58]. One hypothesis could thus be that the great metabolic activity and
387numerous mitochondria produce large amounts of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), resulting in oxidative
388stress that may lead to increased apoptosis [59]. A possible adaptation would be to increase the turnover rates
389of the ciliated cells. To achieve this, high rates of cell proliferation could be expected, and this has to be
390tested. Another hypothesis is linked with fluid toxicity and the direction of water flow in the gills. Ciliated
391cells are indeed the first exposed to the surrounding fluid, and thus exposed to the highest levels of reduced
392compounds including toxic sulfur and various metals that possibly trigger apoptosis [60]. This may also
393explain why symbionts tend to be more abundant in the bacteriocytes that are close to the regions that are
394more exposed to their substrates (mainly methane and sulfide), since these compounds might be more easily
18 18 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
395accessible to symbionts first in the frontal zone compared to the abfrontal zone, sustaining bacterial growth.
396Among deleterious compounds, copper ions were for example recently hypothesized to cause cell apoptosis
397in Bathymodiolus azoricus. Cadmium was shown to cause apoptosis on isolated Crassostrea gigas
398hemocytes after 24h in vitro incubation in the range of 10-100 µmol.L-1 [61]. Gills of mussels are known to
399accumulate metals, and Bathymodiolus azoricus exposed to cadmium display antioxidant enzymatic
400activities that may be partly due to the endosymbionts. These could contribute to protect bacteriocytes, but
401not the symbiont-free ciliated cells, resulting in higher apoptosis rates in the latter [62]. In vivo incubation
402experiments at in situ pressure would be necessary to test these oxidative stress and fluid toxicity hypotheses.
403 Apoptosis of circulating and resident hemocytes have a high baseline level in mollusks [29], and we
404estimated that 34.5 % of the hemocytes were apoptotic in B. azoricus and B. puteoserpentis. The immune
405system of mussels relies on innate immunity only, and hemocytes play a key role in the immune response.
406They are also suspected to have a role in detoxification [58]. In Crassostrea virginica, the most common
407apoptotic cell type is the hemocyte. The apoptotic index for Crassostrea hemocytes, calculated the same way
408as herein, but using another visualization method (Apoptag), ranges between 23 and 99% with a mean of
40946% [63]. In another study, Crassostrea virginica displayed between 4.5% and 15.3% of apoptotic
410circulating hemocytes (Annexin-V assay) [64]. These results are congruent with the rates observed in this
411study, and could reveal overall high apoptosis rates in the hemocytes of bivalves, visually confirming the
412importance of apoptosis in the innate immune system.
413 Despite the fact that apoptosis rates are high in Bathymodiolus bacteriocytes compared to those in
414M. edulis epithelial gill-cells, they are only roughly half of those measured in ciliated cells and hemocytes.
415Results from transcriptomic studies and their subsequent interpretation by other authors led to the hypothesis
416that apoptosis was the main mechanism that allowed mussels (initially Bathymodiolus thermophilus) to
19 19 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
417control the amount of symbionts in their gills. The underlying idea was that bacteria-filled bacteriocytes
418would undergo apoptosis in a way similar to that observed in the tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, in which this
419mechanism participates to the recovery of symbionts carbon, and recycling of the animal cells [11]. On the
420contrary, our observations show that the bacteriocytes that contain only a few, or no bacteria at all, are
421mainly those that enter into apoptosis. Lower levels of apoptosis in bacteriocytes, in particular in those where
422symbionts are the most abundant, could be explained by the bacterial protection concerning the toxic
423compounds, which could provoke apoptosis of the cell. This could explain why cells with fewer bacteria,
424mostly located in the distal (i.e. abfrontal) edge away from the ciliated zone and possibly most depleted in
425symbiont substrates, would preferentially enter apoptosis, although this is merely hypothetical at this stage.
426In bacteriocytes near the ciliated zone, bacteria are most probably digested [21,23,65].
427 Overall, it appears that high rates of apoptosis are a normal feature in deep-sea mussel gills
428physiology. Rather than being a direct mechanism used to kill the most bacteria-rich cells in order to gain
429carbon, apoptosis seems to be involved in the overall dynamics of the gill organ itself. Indeed, observed
430patterns indicate that the cells harboring few to no bacteria are more often apoptotic. This can be interpreted
431in the light of gill specialization to symbiosis, with over-developed gills requiring stronger cilia activity,
432which possibly leads to higher turnover of ciliated cells, and habitat characteristics including the presence of
433toxic compounds. Apoptosis mechanisms are known to play major roles in other symbioses [4,5,11,66]. For
434example Codakia orbiculata, a shallow water bivalve that hosts Gammaproteobacteria in its gills can lose
435and reacquire symbionts. After loss of the symbionts, the bacteriocytes multiply massively to reacquire
436bacteria, while the cells in excess are eliminated by apoptosis [40]. A similar mechanism may be occurring in
437mussels. At first, apoptosis could appear as a heavy cost for the host, especially given that it may endanger
438the whole organ. However, neighboring cells could phagocytose the cells that undergo apoptosis, allowing
439recycling of their constituents. Apoptotic cells also tend to detach from the basal lamina, and once detached
20 20 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
440they may be treated as food particles by the mussels, again allowing recycling. The correlation observed in
441previous transcriptome analyses [25] between apoptotic rates and overall symbiont content may then be
442indirect: hosts with more bacteria tend to have larger gills [8], and thus more active ciliated cells, so overall
443more cells in apoptosis. High rates of apoptosis should thus be regarded as an integral part of the adaptation
444of deep-sea mussels to their symbioses and their habitats, and visualization pattern indicates that apoptosis
445probably plays more complex roles than previously assumed. This study has only investigated adult
446specimens, but because mussels acquire their symbionts in their post-larval stage and throughout the host
447lifetime [67,68], the coupling of symbiont acquisition with apoptosis should be explored at all developmental
448stages. Further study should also investigate the impact of stress (toxic compounds, temperature) and those
449of symbiont loss (when Bathymodiolus is moved away from the fluids compounds [18,69]) on the rates of
450apoptosis, as well as cell proliferation patterns. Because of the relative simplicity of the mussel holobiont, its
451high bacterial load and high levels of apoptosis, deep-sea mussels may prove useful models to further
452investigate the links between apoptosis, autophagy and symbiosis.
453
454Acknowledgments:
455We thank the captain and crew on board the Resarch Vessel “Pourquoi pas?” and the ROV “Victor 6000”
456(Ifremer) for their invaluable contributions to this work. A special thanks to chief scientists Dr. Karine Olu
457(WACS 2011), Pr. François Lallier (BioBaz 2013) and Dr. Marie-Anne Cambon-Bonavita and Dr. Magali
458Zbinden (BICOSE 2014). We are indebted to Dr. Kamil Szafranski for his help with the deep-sea mussels B.
459azoricus and B. puteoserpentis recovered on board during the BICOSE and BioBaz cruises. We are grateful
460to Antoine Mangin, Myriam Lebon and Marie Louvigné for their technical assistance as undergraduate
461students in the lab. This research was supported by Institut Universitaire de France project ACSYMB,
21 21 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
462Université Pierre et Marie Curie and ARED Région Bretagne project FlexSyBi (contract number 9127, grant
463to BP), BALIST program (ANR-08-BLAN-0252), EU projects EXOCET/D (FP6-GOCE-CT-2003-505342),
464MIDAS (FP7/2007-2013, grant agreement n◦ 603418) and CNRS and IFREMER for cruise funding. We are
465grateful to the microscopy platform Merimage (Roscoff, France) partner core facilities and to the Institute of
466Biology Paris-Seine Imaging Facility, supported by the “Conseil Regional Ile-de France”, CNRS and
467Sorbonne Université.
468
469Author’s contribution:
470B.P did the histology work, the microscopy imaging, the statistical analyses and wrote a first version of the
471paper. B.S. performed the isobaric mussel collections with the PERISCOP pressure-maintaining device
472during the two cruises (BioBaz 2013 and BICOSE 2014). F.L. enabled the collections of deep-sea mussel
473during the BioBaz 2013 cruise. S.D fixed the mussels during the WACS 2011 and BioBaz 2013 cruises and
474supervised BP’s analyses in the AMEX-team in Paris. AA fixed the M. edulis and contributed to BP’s
475histology work in the ABICE-team in Roscoff. S.D and AA are the collaborative designers of the study.
476S.D., A.A. and B.P. wrote the latest version of the paper, all authors have read and corrected its final draft.
477
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26 26 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
653Figure 1
654
27 27 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
655Figure 2
656
28 28 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
658Figure 3
659
29 29 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
660
661
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665
30 30 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
667Figure 5
668
31 31 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
669Figure 6
32 32 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/422840; this version posted September 21, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
671Figure 7
33 33